A Quick Poem

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India Shining

In the narrow hovels of a global village

The sun lost its way but not the sermons

With buzz and bang they went high pitch

‘No need to fear, oh heathens, we’re right here’.

Then they dumped all those, broken and rotten

Our landscape acquired a new look—a junkyard

Our ragpickers worked overtime, thrilled and delirious

Generosity only prevails, long live the givers.

My small village lost its name

With concrete barricades and iron towers

With barcodes and hallmarks and certifications

With polythene and cellophane and signages and slogans.

Everything visible got numbers labelled on them

And they got crunched through the digital pulverization

Now nobody could locate or get located

And none can hide from their ubiquitous presence.

And then it happened as assured (predicted?)

We bought and sold everything

And got money to buy money

And only the money, on its last count.

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Berhampur

30-5-2005

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By

A. N. Nanda

Muzaffarpur

18-04-2009

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